Nice dunes...

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Hey Doug it's been a while since I've seen any colour mosaics from you - nice to see.

Here is my attempt at both the 1702 and 1704 drive direction mosaics.

1702


1704


Both images link to the same blog post.

James

And the sol 1700 drive



James

Seriously James, that Sol 1700 landscape is one of the best you've ever done.

Yes - great pans. The horizon is very close, and I for one am longing to see the rover crest this local rise and look out across the plains again for a distant view.

Phil

Did I did it right ?
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Couac couac, nice puzzle Oppy :
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ditto ! breathtaking view

Great work as always James.
There's a redux of the Sol1702 image and a new Sol1704 pan on my own page if anyone cares to take a look.
Astro0

According to my past experience. Dark and somewhat rounded stone are considered as cobble. These are already erosioned by winds (I think so) They are generally grouped with few alikes on the sand. To confirm that, it must have a much better picture on that.

seems that at a small scale we are crossing those ripples (looking quite big BTW) perpendicular to the drift direction.





Hope no purgatoids in sight yet

FYI: There was another drive tosol (1707), about 80m due South.

Not sure if there is a problem with Exploratorium, but the stamps are up on the PDT - so no need to worry about our other rover.

EDIT: And as I said that they appeared

Cute self portrait...

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P1994L0M1.JPG

Interesting to see the IDD deployed there...

John.

I tried to 'be like Opportunity' and walk around around with my arm outstretched- but it gets tiring quite quickly

Sol 1707 R21 drive direction mosaic.



Looks like were getting a 'hell of a view' on the left and look at the significant outcrop in the middle there.

James

I noticed that outcrop (small eroded crater rim?) as well, and wondered how it will affect the driving. Beautiful mosaic, by the way. Can you crank out the anaglyphs as well?

Here's the Navcam QuickTime VR for Sol 1707 (2.3 MB).

As I'm home alone tonight I suppose I could do that. Hold on...

(looking at watch)

We're waiting James.


tap tap tap tap

I can do it, at least in black in white... it's just super time-consuming. So I will just do it for luck for Spirit to pull through (please).

Sorry to keep you waiting Doug. Here you go.



James

Beautiful! Thank you.

Big Pavement...so close....
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(clipped from mhowards VR mosaic)

-Mike

Wait wait! How do you made this color anaglyph? I can't see any L2-L7 set in Exploratorium. Or I haven't carefully watching .

Red L2 for the left eye, blue R1 and synthetic green R1&R2 mix for the right eye.

I hope not in public. I can see some people misinterpreting your actions.

Is the opacity lower than normal nowadays? That shadow doesn't seem very distinct.

Might be. But that shot is pretty late in the afternoon, with a low sun, and shadows are always less distinct when the sun is low.

One day I'll have to learn how to read picture numbers .
So, I can't tell you when this occured but it's from today download.
Oppy's safe anyway:
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I think a human imitating Opportunity would be less 'Hitler' and more 'I'm a little teapot'

With the ripples so small, and underlain by bedrock, I'd be tempted at this point to
turn directly east for a while to reach the 'big pavement'. Theres a firm limit to
how far Oppy could bog down, and it seems unlikely that all 6 wheels could lose
traction.

...but I'm just another impatient backseat driver.

ce

Okay James. Very ingenious
Have we say that you are a wizard?

After five years, it still never ceases to amaze me that I can pop on my red-blue glasses and suddenly be peering across a dune sea on another planet! Aren't we lucky to be alive to see this??

I had exactly the same thought when looking at the updated roadmap today



so am I

Lol I don't have any such glasses. =(

How a bird with anaglyph goggles would see Oppy's sol 1707 surroundings. Oppy is currently positioned at the middle of the lower margin of the frame, which is 300 m long and 250 m wide. South is up. Many features now visible in the pancam images are easily identifiable. This HiRise anaglyph image is blown up to 150 % of the original scale. Enjoy.

Warning: Don't touch the image unless you want to wipe out those beautiful dune crests.

I don't really understand the rationale in wanting to head for the runway, if the purpose is to follow it. It seems like Oppy would end up at the same spot due south, just take an extra drive to get there. I expect her to continue roving south. To use a football (real football, not that 90 minutes of boredom that many of you seem to enjoy) analogy, Oppy has made her cut and is going long.

Marswiggle: that's a nifty anaglyph.

I'm betting on a left turn, not because of the 'runway', but rather because there is a significant obstacle dead ahead. Of course I could be and probably am wrong.

I had some interferences on channeling this stretch of the path...but still thinking it was a valid option...
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Hi

My own color view of the Sol 1707 site :


The Navcam view :


And the Sol 1702 L1 full panoramic view (very thin but very long ) :


This is not in my inhabits but I have made a compressed view to reveal some relief on the horizon. This confirm what James Canvin said, we're going to a "hell of a view" (if I have correct, the drive direction is at the middle right of the image?).

Note the glimpse of Victoria on the horizon. We wanted a parting view; this may be the best we'll get.

The goal is to reach Endeavour, so at some point, eastern motion will be required. At the moment, there
are 'purgatoid' looking dunes directly to the south. Perhaps Oppy can snake through them. OTOH, going
ESE then SSW gets the rover around these, with a lot more time on the bare rock.

Originally, I looked at the relatively smooth terrain even further east, and thought that that might be worth
a run. But looking at the larger picture, going mainly south to the areas of mostly exposed rock south of the ejecta
apron before turning east seems to be a win.

The bare rock areas have not been handled well by most of the traversibility estimators over on the
other thread. In my observations, short of near-flat sand areas, Oppy has made her surest progress
with rock under her treads, dodging around dunes.

ce

Good catch Mike. Now who can tell us which Cape that is we are looking at.

I was wondering that myself. I'll note that the part that's most visible is between 18 and 19 degrees azimuth, from the sol 1702 location, and let somebody else take it from there...

Edit: I didn't get my protractor out, but it looks to me like it's Cape St. Mary, aka "The Beacon".

I think it has the right shape to be the beacon.
Do you think pictures taken at the right time could show us, again, the Beacon's light? Would be nice, wouldn't it? And on top of that, (pun intended) we know now which side it lays now.

By looking at marswiggle anaglyp correction, Eduardo's map I don't share your analyse. So far, strait South is still very fine to my eyes.

But it's on the wrong side.

West-Rigth, Or, North -Gauche ?

'The runway' might be one of the bigger stretches of contiguous exposed rock we've seen outside of a crater.

It might be interesting to see the large scale jointing present in the (relatively) unaltered bedrock away from a crater.

Another curiosity is: why is the runway here in the first place? There appear to be large drifts on the E edge and along the entire edge of the Runway. Is this the sand that normally would be deposited over the pavement that got "swept" off? Is there something special about this exposed stretch of rock? (Check blueberry concentration? Could this validate the other Doug's hypothesis?)

The rock layers from some of the images seem to imply a very slight dip to the W, so the surface rock to the E would be of slightly older strata. How does this compare with the layers from Endurance or Victoria?

At some point Oppy needs to wait out solar conjunction and do a long instrument integration. The Runway seems like a pretty fun place to hang out. Lots of exposed rock to pick and choose your favorite location to poke and prod.

After a quick stop, there is an easy way to work S, or do a quick but uglier run to the E and drain Southwards to smooth (but boring) terrain.

On a long voyage sometimes it's fun to stop and smell the roses taste the pavement from time to time....

-Mike

That could be nice, but the only thing is we could still drive several hundred metres by conjunction! I say let's drive farther. Bound to be more cobbles ahead...

Well...another way to look at it is that it is finally on the right side.

The "runway" is attractive, but I think it doesn't make sense as part of the efficient highway to Endeavour. We need to skirt eastward, but not necessarily as far as the runway. I think Juramike said it best. As a broad science target, that large expanse of bedrock is beckoning. Honestly, I'd love to see it more closely. I'm very curious about the nature of the bedrock surface here, beneath the veneer of aoelian sediment. I find the geomorphology of the etched terrain intriguing.

Driving or science? Which will take precedence here? Perhaps neither, the choice is not clear to me.